Committee’s patience is a virtue with response

Tuesday

Jan 29, 2013 at 1:05 PMJan 29, 2013 at 1:11 PM

DI Editorial Board

The Measure L Committee decided Monday to table a response to Mayor Dan Clark until after it heard from the city attorney.And it is a very smart move to take a measured pace before issuing a response because what the committee may find is that everyone is after the same goal. Of course, they may not and a response is in fact warranted.If the committee still feels it wants to answer the mayor after that meeting, that’s fine.The point here is the committee is doing this right by waiting.This whole issue really needs to be resolved so we can get to the true mission of the Measure L Committee: Making sure the money raised through the tax measure is spent as it was promised.The committee represents the eyes of the community through keeping a check on the council over this issue and we need to make sure the committee is focused on that goal.In this first year of Measure L, there is going to be growing pains because there were implementation problems that won’t be there come years’ two through five.First, the city’s budget had to be passed before the committee could be formed and before money started coming in because the city needs a budget by the first of the fiscal year.This year, that won’t be an issue because the committee is in place and can take a peak at the budget before it’s passed.And to clarify one point made in Saturday’s regarding the response, it was unfair to characterize everyone who attended the meeting to talk on Measure L as being the anti-trash crowd. The editorial should have said “some members of the public.” Only some of members who spoke fit that description, certainly not all.But nature of the point made is that the Measure L Committee needs to be an oversight of Measure L money and the council needs to remain transparent in how it spends that money.We want Measure L to be a success and we want the committee to be a success as well.We just want the committee to be focused on the right objective.Mayor Clark’s desire to refocus the committee came off wrong and started a firestorm, but his sentiment was pure.Now let’s get this behind us and let’s continue to do the people’s business.